Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why I Left Google

blogs.msdn.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

191–200 of 322 posts

Re: Why I Left Google

#191

Post by Yawnoc »

RandallBrown wrote: post #188
jrockway wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Currently, managers get in trouble if they deny you 20% time for more than one quarter. This seems reasonable and I've never heard of anyone (in my department) being denied even for one quarter. But you're right, there is a bit too much management in general. The depressing part is that Google is so far ahead of everyone else that they can fuck up a lot of things and still be the best place to work by light years. (T…

Doesn't your 20% time project still require managerial approval? You can't just work on whatever you want, you need to get it approved by a manager? This is what I've read, I don't know if it's true or not.

No, 20% doesn't require any approval. Your manager can ask you to set it aside during crunch time (one quarter max) and you might eventually get dinged if you're doing something wildly irrelevant. 20% time is alive and well and not at all "deprecated".

Re: Why I Left Google

#192

Post by anthonydchang »

edwardw wrote: post #187
cletus wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with blog posts like this one is that they're largely ignored for their content. Instead, those with an agenda or an axe to grind (on either side) come out of the woodwork. Your comment is a case in point. Anyone familiar with your story (at Google and, as you know, there are many of us who are) knows how totally skewed your perception is. Many people (including me) tried to offer you constructive advice.…

> Your comment is a case in point. Anyone familiar with your story (at Google and, as you know, there are many of us who are) knows how totally skewed your perception is. Speak for yourself, would you? I'm myself a victim, unfortunately. I never even knew my Perf when I was with the company, only discovered it accidentally after I left. The process is very broken for me. Thanks @michaelochurch, I now know better abou…

Huh? You didn't see those links on the left? You missed those emails that told you Perf is completed and please go in and check your reviews?

Re: Why I Left Google

#193

Post by [deleted] »

edwardw wrote: post #187
cletus wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with blog posts like this one is that they're largely ignored for their content. Instead, those with an agenda or an axe to grind (on either side) come out of the woodwork. Your comment is a case in point. Anyone familiar with your story (at Google and, as you know, there are many of us who are) knows how totally skewed your perception is. Many people (including me) tried to offer you constructive advice.…

> Your comment is a case in point. Anyone familiar with your story (at Google and, as you know, there are many of us who are) knows how totally skewed your perception is. Speak for yourself, would you? I'm myself a victim, unfortunately. I never even knew my Perf when I was with the company, only discovered it accidentally after I left. The process is very broken for me. Thanks @michaelochurch, I now know better abou…

[deleted]

Re: Why I Left Google

#194

Post by edwardw »

anthonydchang wrote: post #192
edwardw wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Your comment is a case in point. Anyone familiar with your story (at Google and, as you know, there are many of us who are) knows how totally skewed your perception is. Speak for yourself, would you? I'm myself a victim, unfortunately. I never even knew my Perf when I was with the company, only discovered it accidentally after I left. The process is very broken for me. Thanks @michaelochurch, I now know better abou…

Huh? You didn't see those links on the left? You missed those emails that told you Perf is completed and please go in and check your reviews?

@anthonydchang No, I never received such emails. My manager and / or HR never bother. When I discovered this accidently after I left, I complained by submitting a ticket. But you know what, almost whole managements at that subsidiary (read: Google China) has been sacked. So nobody could care less about it. I must say working for Google is THE worst working experience for me.

Re: Why I Left Google

#195

Post by anthonydchang »

michaelochurch wrote: post #165

To understand why Google isn't what it used to be, one has to understand what happened in 2009-2011. This is the era when Google decided to get "real managers" and they hired a bunch of executives from places like Oracle, IBM, and Intel. If Google had told them to wipe their fucking feet off before tracking shitty culture into the place, it might have survived. It didn't. Google has an immense amount of talent "under…

You are truly either delusional or an attention-monger that needs to troll to feel better about yourself.

Like cletus mentioned, many people reached out to offer you constructive advice. You ignored everyone, thought yourself superior to everyone.

I bet you were just waiting to be the first to comment, no? You did well...not only did you throw Google under the bus, you also threw California under the bus. Learn to have a little class.

Re: Why I Left Google

#196

Post by groby_b »

brigade wrote: post #146
laconian wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're enraged over relocating a "+" prefix to a double quoted word, then you might not want to use a post-2005 version of Microsoft Office...

It was not a relocation; + and "" were not equivalent, and Google has made no effort to replace the functionality they removed.

quotes on a single word actually _are_ the equivalent of +, AFAIK. I.e if you want foo, bar, quox to be all present on the page you search, the term is (minus angle brackets, obviously)

I could be wrong, but it seems to work for me.

Re: Why I Left Google

#197

Post by thong »

michaelochurch wrote: post #165

To understand why Google isn't what it used to be, one has to understand what happened in 2009-2011. This is the era when Google decided to get "real managers" and they hired a bunch of executives from places like Oracle, IBM, and Intel. If Google had told them to wipe their fucking feet off before tracking shitty culture into the place, it might have survived. It didn't. Google has an immense amount of talent "under…

I work for a start-up, and we have a lot of autonomy. However, we can't afford 20% time on a regular basis. It's usually closer to 15% during a good week.

I couldn't help but leave an (infographic of my reaction to the outrage re: 20% time.

http://bit.ly/wyWDjE

Re: Why I Left Google

#198

Post by thong »

thong wrote: post #197
michaelochurch wrote: post #165

To understand why Google isn't what it used to be, one has to understand what happened in 2009-2011. This is the era when Google decided to get "real managers" and they hired a bunch of executives from places like Oracle, IBM, and Intel. If Google had told them to wipe their fucking feet off before tracking shitty culture into the place, it might have survived. It didn't. Google has an immense amount of talent "under…

I work for a start-up, and we have a lot of autonomy. However, we can't afford 20% time on a regular basis. It's usually closer to 15% during a good week. I couldn't help but leave an (infographic of my reaction to the outrage re: 20% time. http://bit.ly/wyWDjE

http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/3ob4kw/

Re: Why I Left Google

#199

Post by anthonydchang »

edwardw wrote: post #194
anthonydchang wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh? You didn't see those links on the left? You missed those emails that told you Perf is completed and please go in and check your reviews?

@anthonydchang No, I never received such emails. My manager and / or HR never bother. When I discovered this accidently after I left, I complained by submitting a ticket. But you know what, almost whole managements at that subsidiary (read: Google China) has been sacked. So nobody could care less about it. I must say working for Google is THE worst working experience for me.

Even without the emails, there are the links on the left in Perf that you can see your peer and manager reviews. Unless you're telling me Google China used a different Perf.

I'm sorry to hear that you feel your time at Google is the worst experience for you, but your story just doesn't make sense. How can you submit a ticket after you left? Were you in eng? Did you not see mchurch's delusional rants and all the people that came out trying to help him? If anything, the support, advice given to mchurch is exactly why Google is a pretty awesome place to work.

Re: Why I Left Google

#200

Post by DanBC »

groby_b wrote: post #196
brigade wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was not a relocation; + and "" were not equivalent, and Google has made no effort to replace the functionality they removed.

quotes on a single word actually _are_ the equivalent of +, AFAIK. I.e if you want foo, bar, quox to be all present on the page you search, the term is (minus angle brackets, obviously) I could be wrong, but it seems to work for me.

It breaks sometimes.

Imagine the name Dan Northern. I search using (without square brackets)

["Dan Northern"]

I don't ever want, for that search, to see any results like:

["Dan's Northern"]

But I do, sometimes. (Using different names, which I'm not giving here to protect a friend who actually does need protection.)

But Google has a handy feedback form, and I report it when it happens, and sometimes it seems to make a difference.

I would freaking love to see some of that feedback.

Post reply on HN